GREG SULLIVAN COLUMN: Durfee won't be playing Somerset Berkley in football this fall

Friday

May 10, 2013 at 12:01 AMMay 10, 2013 at 10:01 AM

It's sad to hear that the annual Durfee vs. Somerset (now Somerset Berkley Regional) football rivalry is no longer annual. For the first time in four decades, the teams this season are not scheduled to play.

Greg Sullivan

To many Durfee football players, it was the biggest game of the year. Sure, New Bedford was the Thanksgiving tradition, but Somerset was the true rival, the team filled with guys Hilltopper players saw and knew, liked or disliked.

That’s what makes it sad to hear that the annual Durfee vs. Somerset (now Somerset Berkley Regional) football rivalry is no longer annual. For the first time in four decades, the teams this season are not scheduled to play.

Somerset sports historian Dick Tinsley, following an archive search (also known as doing my work for me), said the annual rivalry stretched back to 1974.

While some will immediately suspect a severely struggling Durfee program of trying to soften its schedule, SB coach Nick Freitas, also disappointed over this turn of events, offered a different perspective.

“It’s a scheduling conflict with the new playoff system,” he said. “They filled their schedule before we had our (Eastern Athletic Conference) schedule completed. ... That was unfortunate.”

While Freitas said he hopes the rivalry can be renewed in 2014, he knows that is easier said than done as teams often agree to two-year deals. Durfee has picked up Bishop Connolly as a new foe.

The new Massachusetts playoff system has made scheduling more challenging. It allows teams to schedule only seven games. Once the playoffs begin, non-playoff teams are given their opponents week to week.

“We find out on Sunday whom we’re playing,” Freitas said. “That will be an interesting situation.”

No Durfee game means Somerset Berkley is looking for an opponent to round out its seven-game set schedule. The Raiders have already picked up Lincoln-Sudbury as an opponent.

Back to the rivalry, there have been tight games, one-sided games, scoreless ties, and a post-game brawl.

The most memorable game, in this opinion, was in 1978 when Somerset (with a fine running back named Greg Gagne) defeated Durfee 23-21 on Jeff Herz’s 30-yard field goal in the closing moments.

To this day, Durfee players, coaches and fans insist the kick was wide. Somerset still agreed with the refs.

-------- Apologies to Big Bob Farias. In a story about the selection of Manny Papoula and Victor Pereira for the New England Basketball Hall of Fame, I said the duo would be joining Skip Karam, Luke Urban, Andy Farrissey and Al Attar as Durfee alumni in the hall of fame. Old friend Jack Murphy (as well as an emailer) informed me on Thursday that Durfee grad Bob Farias, who had a legendary (love that word) coaching career at Lexington High School, was inducted into the New England hall of Fame as a coach in 2006.

-------- Strange the things that stick in my head. But the hardest hit softball I’ve seen this spring was a wicked line single to left field by Durfee senior Tara McCann against Barnstable this week. It startled me. She annihilated the ball. It was harder hit than the home run she belted the next time up.

-------- The best high school team in Greater Fall River? Have to vote for Case High softball. The best record belongs to the undefeated Westport High boys’ tennis team.

-------- The great van Lingen name odyssey has, I think, come to an end. Case’s fine softball player Mary Kate van Lingen has seen her surname in print spelled Van Lingen, Vanlingen, and VanLingen. Her first name is Mary and middle name Kate. Both have been used in conjunction with the variety of surname spellings. But I recently checked with her mom, who enlightened me to the lower case “v” in van Lingen and the preference for Katie. But perhaps we should check with Katie (or Mary) herself. Stay tuned.

Greg Sullivan is a staff reporter. Email him at gsullivan@heraldnews.com. Follow him @gregsullivan4.